The Aid Transparency Index for 2014 Ranks UNDP on Top

International - Thursday, October 09, 2014

Launched in 2008 at the high level forum on aid effectiveness in Accra, the International Aid Transparency Initiative aims at making information on aid spending easy to access, use and understand. Towards this objective, 284 organizations have committed to publish standardized aid information by December 2015.

Yesterday, the International Aid Transparency Initiative published the results of its Aid Transparency Index (ATI) for the year 2014. Based on 39 Indicators, the ATI measures the level of transparency of the aid programs of world’s leading multilateral and bilateral development organizations.

This year, the index included 68 organizations and saw a rise in the number of those who are ranked in the top category – “very good” – from four in 2013 to seven in 2014. The United Nations Development Programme scored 91% and came on the top, followed by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, which scored 88%, and then the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which scored 87%. While a lead group of organizations makes continuous significant improvement, there is, however, a widening gap between the top and the bottom agencies that lag far behind. The ATI revealed that the majority still performs poorly in aid transparency. The average score in 2014 score is only 39%. As a result, most of the information on development activities is still difficult to access and use. According to ATI, this means that there is still a long way to go in obtaining a full picture of all aid flows.